Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the woocommerce-shipping-per-product domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/staging.esse.ca/htdocs/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131

Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the complianz-gdpr domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/staging.esse.ca/htdocs/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131
{"id":161146,"date":"2017-05-15T18:05:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T23:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/?post_type=compte-rendu&p=161146"},"modified":"2026-02-25T08:32:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T13:32:42","slug":"does-the-oyster-sleep","status":"publish","type":"compte-rendu","link":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/reviews\/does-the-oyster-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the oyster sleep?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The concept of self has changed through history, in correspondence with other cultural determinants. The subjectivity demanded by today\u2019s dominant economic system\u200a\u2014\u200acapitalism\u200a\u2014\u200ais characterized by competitive individualism: we build our unique and separate identities through our consumption patterns. As we become increasingly aware of the limits and dangers of that system\u200a\u2014\u200adeepening social injustice; military, commercial, and industrial destruction of planetary life\u200a\u2014\u200awe chafe within its ideological constraints. How can we become the kinds of subjects capable of making the change we crave? Could love bind us together in struggle, within and against the unloving system that holds us? Curators Pip Day and Irmgard Emmelhainz explore this question in Gallery TPW\u2019s moving-image installation Does the oyster sleep?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition title is drawn from Clarice Lispector\u2019s story \u00c1gua Viva<\/em>. Through ecstatic prose, the author\u2019s metaphoric oyster affirms the pain and \u201cdiabolic joy\u201d that comes from intimacy with others. The curators ask, in an introductory text, \u201cJust as the oyster is torn from its root, becoming exposed and vulnerable, can love tear us away from ourselves, toward others, or toward new relationships based on care, solidarity, and communal autonomy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gallery\u2019s main space facilitates that conversation through a cluster of video works of different genres\u200a\u2014\u200afrom social documentary to poetic and experimental meditations\u200a\u2014\u200apresented as two large wall projections and on four monitors; sculptural seating arranged for viewer interaction (larger stepped bleachers and smaller benches face various directions), and two small stacks of books that inspired the curators. In acknowledgment of the physical challenges of accessing over five hours of video materials, another room, with sofa and large monitor, offers more comfortable \u201con demand\u201d access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"_Borg_Future
Maja Borg<\/strong>
Future My Love<\/em>, 2012.
Photo : Courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First encountered is Silvia Gruner\u2019s large wall projection Un Chant d\u2019amour <\/em>(2004), anexpansive remake of a section of Jean Genet\u2019s film of the same name. For sixty minutes the camera passes slowly across two sides of a wall, focusing interchangeably on three different figures attempting to have intimate contact through a small hole. Their passionate kissing, caressing, and passing of breath and smoke through the open\u00ading express the impossible desire to merge with the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 16 mm social documentary film A Wives Tale<\/em> (Sophie Bissonnette, Martin Duckworth, and Joyce Rock, 1980)witnesses the integral role played by wives of Sudbury\u2019s Inco miners through a long strike and their own awakening as feminist and political agents. Aligned with Lispector\u2019s poetic tenor is Marguerite Duras\u2019s 1979 film Les Mains negatives<\/em>,which tracks through early-morning Paris as the city\u2019s littered streets are cleaned by immigrant workers. A wailing violin and Duras\u2019s haunting voice-over hark back through the ages to when prehistoric man laid his pigment-coated hands upon rock in declaration of universal yearning and love. Wa\u00ebl Noureddine stamps From Beirut with Love <\/em>(2009)with the sadness bound to his city of broken buildings, protests, police, guns, and hopeless friends fading into heroin. The identity of Sara Eliassen\u2019s character in A Blank Slate<\/em> is paralyzed by gendered film history. Maja Borg\u2019s protagonist marries her longing for love to political utopia in Future My Love<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The divergent perspectives of these assembled works complicate the exhibition\u2019s theoretical premise, perhaps paralleling the difficulties of moving progressive goals forward.<\/p>\n

Jill Glessing, Maja Borg<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gallery TPW<\/strong>, Toronto, <\/br>March 10\u200a\u2014\u200aApril 15, 2017<\/br>","protected":false},"author":1303,"featured_media":160843,"template":"","categories":[884],"numeros":[5946],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[1004],"artistes":[5798],"thematiques":[],"type_compte-rendu":[],"class_list":["post-161146","compte-rendu","type-compte-rendu","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","numeros-90-feminisms","auteurs-jill-glessing-en","artistes-maja-borg-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu\/161146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/compte-rendu"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161146"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=161146"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=161146"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=161146"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=161146"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=161146"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=161146"},{"taxonomy":"thematiques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematiques?post=161146"},{"taxonomy":"type_compte-rendu","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_compte-rendu?post=161146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}